Any new pictures you've come across? The content in this string is great. I've used this to open up conversations in the hospital as a way of bringing up the notion that some of our patients this winter will have irrational fear and may be calling us more frequently.

while those fruitcakes who have suggested culling wild birds to stop bird flu, Chairman Mao's experiment should give pause for thought:

[whatt happened in] the 1950s, when Mao Zedong ordered the killing of what he called the country's biggest four evils - rats, flies, mosquitoes and sparrows?

The late Chinese leader's "four pests" campaign proved the Communist Party's power to mobilise China's millions of peasants but the results were often unfortunate.

Mao Zedong's mass extermination campaign went horribly wrong
The anti-sparrow campaign, for instance, was extremely effective but had tragic results.

Villagers were told to rush out to the fields, banging on pots and pans and screaming at the tops of their voices.

The sparrows [[and won't have been just sparrows; many birds involved]] took to the air, and as the pandemonium continued, stayed there, too terrified to land, until they dropped dead from exhaustion.

The only trouble was that sparrows are a vital link in the food chain and are particularly fond of locusts. With no sparrows left to eat them, there was a plague of locusts, the crops were ruined and millions of people died in the ensuing famine. [famine not solely from the pests increasing in this way, but played a role]

Just seen daft posts on Facebook:
[quote]*NEWS FLASH* It has just been announced that the world's religious leaders have issued a joint declaration that the Swine Flu pandemic is the start of the Aporkalypse; In addition, Swine Flu has now crossed and mixed with bird flu - Scientists say they may produce an effective inoculation when pigs fly; however, they say that the pigs themselves will not be affected because they will be cured anyway....[/quote]
[quote]I also telephoned the Human Swine Flu hotline and all I heard was crackling.[/quote]
[quote]h crumbs I almost forgot, if you get any weird messages on email about swine flu, it's just spam..[/quote]